Upstox Will Allow Users To Invest In FDs Soon: Co-Founder

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Upstox Co-founder Shrini Viswanath says the app will allow users to invest in FDs from platform in next 2 months.

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00:00 You're watching BQ Prime and we are here at the Global Fintech Fest once again.

00:04 Joining me for a conversation is Mr. Srini Vishwanath, who is the co-founder of Upstox.

00:09 Thank you so much for speaking to us, sir.

00:11 I just want to understand that competitors are really widening their offerings at this

00:15 point and some are even entering this space.

00:17 So what are some new products that you're looking at launching?

00:21 So we just recently launched SGB, Sovereign Gold Bonds.

00:25 We've launched some fixed income products.

00:28 We're launching fixed deposit shortly.

00:30 We're getting very, very positive and aggressive on launching more and more asset classes for

00:35 end investors to use, because we believe that people are not just looking for a single app

00:41 for trading or investing.

00:43 They want a single app that can manage their entire wealth.

00:46 So whatever that may be in terms of managing their wealth, giving them a full picture of

00:52 how good their portfolio is, that's something that we're investing heavily on.

00:56 So in terms of new asset classes, we've launched Sovereign Gold Bonds.

01:00 We're looking to launch more on fixed deposits.

01:02 And in terms of technology, we're looking to expand our machine learning and AI models

01:07 to help people get their model portfolio right.

01:11 Do you have just a follow up?

01:12 Do you have a timeline in place for this, for the new offerings?

01:15 Yeah, so we are actually rolling it out almost every month.

01:19 So we just launched Gold Bonds.

01:20 We're looking to launch fixed deposits in the next two months.

01:24 Our model portfolio technology is also about to come out in another two months, which will

01:28 tell you exactly how good your portfolio is and what you can do to make it better.

01:33 All right.

01:34 So if you could help me understand the market share of discount broking and upstox share

01:39 in it.

01:40 I don't have the exact numbers, but discount brokers as a whole are gaining more and more

01:46 market share.

01:47 And big reason of that is not just because their discount, but a lot of that is because

01:52 they focus heavily on the customer and on the product, which has been super successful

01:56 to a point where I think even large bank brokerages now, most of them, if they don't already have

02:01 a discount brokerage platform, they're about to launch one very soon.

02:05 So I think this is the way it's going to be in the future.

02:08 You're going to see everyone be a discount broker.

02:10 All right.

02:11 Oh, that's a very powerful statement, I must say.

02:14 You also had plans to apply for an AMC license.

02:17 And recently there have been headlines also about it.

02:20 Could you help us share what is the update on it?

02:23 Yeah.

02:24 So we're planning to launch in the next one year or so.

02:27 And the thinking behind that is that we believe that with our knowledge, the research that

02:33 we already do on stocks, our understanding of the customer and what they want, we can

02:38 actually create, manufacture personalized products that suits them.

02:43 That's better than the other thousand mutual funds out there that are in the market.

02:46 One of the most common questions that we get is how do I invest?

02:50 Right.

02:51 There are more than a thousand different mutual funds.

02:53 And that's something that we want to try to answer by being able to manufacture our own

02:57 fund and give the best product for the end customer.

02:59 So there are also reports that SEBI is coming up with the same day or the one hour settlements

03:06 as well.

03:07 So how do you think this will be executed and what is the expected impact of this?

03:11 Look, I love the way that SEBI is speeding up a lot of these regulations in terms of

03:17 consumer developments.

03:18 I haven't particularly delved deep yet into it.

03:21 I'm still awaiting details to see what the impact is.

03:24 But broadly speaking, I think the amount of innovation that they've brought in terms of

03:29 account opening, identity verification, safeguarding of funds and trying to make anything and everything

03:36 as part of the trading ecosystem and lifecycle more real time is a welcome move from the

03:42 industry.

03:44 Just stretching my one final question on the SEBI part.

03:48 SEBI is also coming up with the Asba-like facility.

03:51 In fact, it's here.

03:52 So how do you think this will be executed or even the impact of this considering there

03:56 are some non-Asba customers as well?

03:59 I think it's going to have everyone, all the banks and all the brokerages fall in line.

04:04 I think it's done more in the sense of to safeguard customer funds.

04:09 And again, I think it's a right move in the right direction.

04:12 I'm glad at the sort of execution and pace that they're going at.

04:16 They're making startups and fintechs also check their own pace and make sure that we're

04:20 fast enough.

04:21 Right.

04:22 But I think given the maturity of our economy, the number of new accounts that are coming

04:26 in, it's the right time for everyone to sort of raise the bar at how well we do business.

04:32 Right.

04:33 And if that's something that we need to do it faster and quicker, then so be it.

04:37 We should do it.

04:38 Thank you so much for speaking to BQ Prime, sir.

04:40 It's been a pleasure for us.

04:41 Thank you.

04:42 It was my pleasure to be here.

04:43 Thank you.

04:44 Thank you.

04:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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